Truffle Hunting Has Gone to the Dogs - Modern Farmer Truffle Hunting Has Gone to the Dogs By Jake Swearingen on August 30, 2013 Share Ilsa, truffle-hunting dog extradonaire, with a recent find. Kris Jacobson Want to find a good truffle? Find yourself a good dog. It’s hard to find a crop more valuable than truffles — prices can go as high as $2,000 per pound for ultra-rare white Alba truffles . The problem is that they grow underground, attached to the roots of trees. To find them, truffle hunters traditionally used pigs, whose natural instinct for rooting behavior helped hunters locate the fancy fungi. But in reality, pigs have long been out of favor for hunting truffles. Replacing them? The truffle dog. And in Oregon, the truffle-hunting dog scene has absolutely exploded. Charles Lefevre, president and founder of New World Truffieres and organizer of the annual Oregon Truffle Festival , points out multiple reasons why dogs have surpassed pigs. One, they have more stamina than your average porker. Two, they’re easier to train.

Three, dogs are much less likely to try to eat the truffle once they find it. You don’t want to wrestle with a 300-pound hog when it’s interested in chowing down on a truffle. “The lore,” says Lefevre, “is that truffle hunters that use pigs don’t tend to have all their fingers.” “The lore is that truffle hunters that use pigs don’t tend to have all their fingers.” Dogs Versus Tweakers In parts of the Pacific Northwest, there’s a brewing battle between two types of truffle hunters: those that use dogs, and those that use rakes. While truffle dog owners take pains to say that some rakers are responsible and respectful, there is a breed of truffle raker that dog owners view as destructive and — at times — down right dangerous. Outlaw rakers will criminally trespass on property, set up camp, and work under cover of night, raking up huge swaths of land, grabbing everything they can get. The end result: destroyed truffle grounds and a sinking reputation for domestic truffles, thanks to unripe truffles flooding the market. For dog lovers, the advantages are clear.

Dog will only scent and alert handlers to truffles at peak ripeness, when odor is at it’s strongest, leaving developing, unripe truffles untouched. A hunter with a rake, meanwhile, will turn over the soil and grab whatever truffles they find — ripe or unripe. Worse, rare (and valuable) black Oregon truffles actually produce fruit multiple times throughout the year, unless they’re dug up early with a rake. It’s hard to not detect an element of classism in all this. Truffle hunting dogs can be expensive — it’s not unheard of to pay $4,000 for a prime Italian Lagotto Romagnolo (a dog renowned for its truffle-finding skills) and then pay $5,000 more to train them. Rakers, meanwhile, are usually more on the economic margins. “Tweakers are what we call them,” says one truffle dog trainer. “People on meth and getting money to support their habit. You have to be careful out there.” But the real competitive advantage for canines lies in truffle hunting’s furtive nature. Truffle harvesting grounds are carefully kept secrets, with hunters being wildly protective of their turf.

“If you have a pig on a leash, everyone knows what you’re doing,” says Lefevre. But if you spot someone with a pooch on a leash, they could just be enjoying some fresh country air. There is, of course, one thing pigs do have over dogs: They don’t need any training to find truffles. Dogs need a little help. Which is where guys like Glenn Martyn step in. Martyn, who has trained dogs since 1966, has helped mold canines into everything from bomb and drug-sniffing dogs to canines employed by saw mills to detect smoldering woodchip fires before they break out into full-on infernos. It’s only been in recent years that he’s branched out into truffle dog work, but he finds the principles are much the same. “The truffle, per se, is not something a dog would naturally search for on its own,” says Martyn. “The truffle has to have some association with something.

For most dogs, that positive association is food, and once a dog learns the truffle smell means food, they’ll do whatever it takes to find that truffle smell.” (Other reward methods besides food can work too — a game of tug-of-war, a favorite toy, even just the act of digging can be enough to motivate a dog. Marytn’s truffle dog Ghillie, a 5-year-old English Springer Spaniel, is rewarded by a game of fetch.) In practice, this means first coating an item in truffle oil and having the dog find it. Then the item is buried under leaves, then rocks, and then actual soil. Eventually an actual ripe truffle is introduced. Et voila: You have a truffle-hunting dog. The work is a natural fit for dogs and handlers who have been trained in another canine art form: search and rescue. Truffle dog owner Deb Walker spent 12 years training and working with search-and-rescue animals . The thrill of finding someone lost in the wilderness was hard to match, but the lifestyle was rough. “Most of the call-outs are 10:00 or 11:00 pm on a Sunday night.

You grab your gear and your dog, and you drive a couple of hours,” Walker says. “You search until five in the morning and you’re exhausted and maybe you find someone. Or you don’t.” As retirement loomed, Walker began to think of ways to spend her time that didn’t involve late nights and very early mornings. A friend’s suggestion led her into truffle hunting, and Deb now spends her days searching for white and black Oregon truffles through 8,000 acres of timberland with her standard poodle, Tucker. (Tucker’s reward for finding a ripe truffle: a favorite blue rubber ball.) Walker currently keeps the truffles for herself and friends, as well as for training other truffle-hunting dogs. Her husband, meanwhile, has become quite adept at turning her fresh treasures into truffle oil, but they’re waiting to jump through a few more regulatory loopholes before they begin selling to the public. When they do, the planned name is Tucker’s Truffle Oil. 1 A dog learns the tricks of the trade at the Oregon Truffle Festival.

Photo Credit: Andrea Johnson 2 Truffles | Truffle Dog Company Truffle Dog Company Contact Truffles Often called diamonds of the culinary world, truffles are edible fungi that grow underground, and are considered to be a delicacy because of their intense and unique characteristics and aromas. Truffles are often shaved on top of food prior to serving, but they also are used to infuse flavors into dishes. Along with caviar, saffron, and matsutake mushrooms, truffles are considered one of the most highly sought after, rare, and expensive foods in the world. What is a truffle? Truffles are the fruiting bodies (spore-bearing mechanisms) of underground mushrooms. The actual fungus from which the truffles grow are formed by an underground network of mycelium in a symbiotic relationship with a host plant. This mutually beneficial arrangement occurs when the fungal mycelium and the root cells of the plant grow together to create mycorrhizae. The plant provides sugars to the fungus through photosynthesis, and the fungus provides the plant with minerals, water, and other nutrients from the soil that it could not get by itself. Why do truffles smell?

Unlike mushrooms above ground, truffles rely entirely on animals to eat them as a means of spore dispersal. That is how truffle fungi spread and reproduce. And how do they do that exactly? Well, by smelling good of course! As truffles mature they develop odors and send off gasses and pheromones that signal to the surrounding wildlife that there is something tasty hidden under the soil. We like to eat them for the same reasons a chipmunk might. Are there many types of truffles? Yes. There are many species of truffles, however, only a handful are of commercial culinary value and taste very good. Where do truffles grow? Truffles are found all over the world and are usually associated with certain families of trees such as Pine, Oak, Hazelnut and Willow; although almost any tree can form mycorrhizae with truffle forming fungi of some kind. Depending on the species of truffle and environmental conditions they can be found erupting through the soil or up to 12 inches (or more!) underground.

In the Pacific Northwest region of North America, three of the commercial culinary varieties of truffles grow in association with Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in coastal forests and timber stands. The main growing season for commercial culinary species in the Pacific Northwest is winter through spring. Different species of truffles, such as some of those in Europe will be ripe at different times of the year. How do you harvest truffles? As truffles are usually found underground, you have to have a way to gather them! This is where detection animals come into play because of their superior olfactory capabilities. Traditionally in Europe truffles were harvested by female pigs because the volatile compounds ripe truffles release are similar to pheromones emitted from a male pig. These days however dogs are used because while they have to be trained, they do not eat the truffles as readily and are much easier to manage. A 400 lb pig is slightly more cumbersome than a 40 lb dog! Sadly, in the United States, truffles are also harvested using rakes which can be detrimental to the environment and the domestic truffle economy. What’s the deal with pigs?

Pigs naturally forage and rout (dig for food) in the ground with their snouts and are keen lovers of truffles themselves and will happily gobble them up if not trained to eat something else as a reward. Pigs were traditionally used in Europe to hunt for truffles because they can detect truffles at great depths, and required little to no training. In some locations using sows is still the preferred method, however the popularity and ease of use of hunting with dogs has taken precedence over the last century. What is raking? Raking for truffles is the act of raking the soil of a forest to expose truffles, and then collecting them. This method, used regularly for scientific collections, often yields unripe and immature specimens which may not be suitable for culinary use. Destructive or aggressive raking damages the ecosystem from which the truffles are removed and also negatively impacts the truffle economy, devauling the quality and reputation of the truffles. Raking can damage other unripe truffles that are not harvested by dislodging them from the support network with their host trees and thus ending their maturation process. Why use dogs? Why not, we say!

Properly utilizing dogs (or pigs) for locating truffles is more gentle on the environment (and we think more fun!). Unripe truffles lack odor, and therefore don’t have much culinary value. Using dogs allows us to find only the ripe truffles with their amazing aromatics, thus preserving and ensuring optimum culinary value. Dogs also pinpoint the location of ripe truffles and thus less of the environment and fragile duff layer of the soil is disturbed when collecting. For many of us dogs are also part of our daily lives, and live with us as pets. Dogs have amazing olfactory capabilities that far exceed our own, and most dogs thoroughly enjoy scent games. Truffle hunting with dogs is a natural and fun way to enjoy working and playing with your canine family member. Can any dog find truffles? We like to say that almost any dog, and any breed, with the right training, can be trained to find truffles. It is more about individual personality and how you work together as a team. You don’t have to have a Lagotto Romagnolo (the traditional Italian truffle hunting breed) in order to be able to train your dog for truffle hunting. No breed, or mixture thereof, is off limits.

We have trained or worked with Chihuahuas, Corgis, German Shepherds, Labs, Spaniels, Cattle Dogs, Newfoundlands, American Staffordshire Terriers, Great Danes, French Bulldogs, and the list goes on. Most dogs thoroughly enjoy hunting for truffles because we make it a game! Can dogs who find truffles also be trained to find other mushrooms? You bet! You can train a dog to find just about anything. The process is fairly similar when teaching your canine to hunt for other mushrooms. We have trained dogs to find matsutake, morels, chanterelles, and other species. Can I grow truffles? Growing truffles reliably is still considered experimental farming to a degree, but there have been many new advances in scientific methods and theory in the pastdecade. Depending on where you live or want to grow truffles and on what scale, there are scientists andconsultants available to aid you in your endeavors. Truffles grow in association with trees, and in order to grow truffles you need inoculated seedlings. It is a complex science, but there are some folks who are trying, some with success! Why are truffles so expensive?

Different species of truffles will fetch a range of prices at market and price fluctuates depending on a variety of factors. The most expensive species, the “Alba white truffle” (Tuber magnatum) can reach upwards of $2,500/ lb. Truffles are rare, and are notoriously difficult to detect even with the aid of detector animals. This adds not only to the allure, but increases the value. This is one of the reasons truffles are so valuable; they are considered a wild food. What is truffle oil? Truffle oil traditionally is made from submerging truffles in olive oil. The oil will tatse different depending on the variety of truffle used, and the variety of olive oil, or grape seed oil used. Doing this draws the essence of the truffles out and into the oil. Some who sell truffle oil actually do not use truffles at all and instead inject a chemical compound 2,4 dithiapentane into the oil to produce a similar one dimensional flavor at reduced cost. Finding Truffles Home > Catalog >Finding Truffles The Ultimate Treasure Hunt: Finding Truffles Truffles are difficult to find and very expensive as a result!

In 1994, black truffles sold for $350 to $500 a pound. In the United States, edible truffles are collected in the forests of Oregon and Washington. In Europe, most truffles are collected in France and Italy. Truffle hunters in Italy and France use pigs and mixed-breed dogs to sniff out truffles. Dogs are preferred to pigs because pigs love to eat truffles. Notice the staff held by the truffle hunter in the picture with the pig. The hunter uses the staff to force the pig to back off, once the pig has located a truffle. In Italy, truffle dogs are trained in several steps. First, the dog is taught to retrieve a rubber ball. Next, a small bit of smelly Gorgonzola cheese is substituted for the rubber ball. After the dog has learned to retrieve the cheese, the cheese is hidden, forcing the dog to sniff it out for a reward of food. Finally, a small truffle is substituted for the cheese. The dog is trained to fetch, then dig up the truffle. Dogs like other food better than truffles, so bread and other treats are used for rewards.

The night before a truffle hunt the dog is not fed so it will be eager to find truffles for the treat. Some dogs take the easy way out. They find and eat garbage buried by campers! Dogs generally do not find young truffles because the odor is too weak. The odor becomes stronger with age as the spores mature. The value of commercial truffles means that there are laws controlling their collection. In Italy, for example, truffle collectors are tested and licensed. There, organizations of land owners called cooperatives control truffle hunting on their property. Unless you are a member of the cooperative, you can be arrested for collecting truffles from cooperative truffle beds. In North America, truffle collectors use three major clues to find truffles. First, it must be warm and the soil moist. Truffles are often found 10 to 14 days after a heavy rain. The umbrella shaped mushrooms which pop up after a good rain can be used as a kind of clock. Look for truffles after these mushrooms have started to collapse. Second, the right trees must be present. Truffles are formed by fungi that are partners (ectomycorrhizal) with certain trees.

You will not find truffles under maples, for instance, because maples do not form ectomycorrhizae. Trees to use as clues include: pines, firs, Douglas-fir, oaks, hazel nuts, hickories, birches, beeches, and eucalyptus. Third, truffles use animals for spore dispersal. In North America, squirrels and chipmunks are the major wild animals dispersing truffle spores. Search among the right trees for pits dug by rodents in their own hunt for truffles. Pits do not guarantee success, however! Rodents also dig pits searching for acorns, onion bulbs, and beetle grubs. The best success results from raking around fresh pits. Look for pits not filled with leaves or other debris. I use a four-tine garden cultivator with the handle shortened to 30 inches to rake leaves off the surface and dig into the soil 3 or 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) . A good eye is required as many truffles are small and colored red, brown, white, or even black. Bring a supply of small paper bags for taking your truffles home.

Write your collection notes on the bag before putting the truffles inside it. Information on fresh appearance and habitat is often needed to identify fungi. Note the color and shape of the truffle, and what kind of trees are close by. The date and precise location are also useful information. These data can help you understand when and where to look next year. Do not put truffles in sealed plastic bags. If you do they will mold, get slimy, and smell bad! NEVER EAT ANY TRUFFLE, OR OTHER FUNGUS, UNLESS IT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY AN EXPERT! You might confuse the button stage of a poisonous mushroom with a truffle, or be allergic. Hunting truffles is like hunting buried treasure. Good luck! Further Reading: Castellano, M.A., J.M. Trappe, Z. Maser and C. Maser. 1989. Key to spores of the genera of hypogeous fungi of North Temperate forests with special reference to animal mycophagy. Mad River Press, Eureka, CA Smith, H.V. and A.H. Smith. 1973. How to know the non-gilled fleshy fungi. W. C.

Brown, Dubuque, IA Outdoors | In the throes of truffle fever | Seattle Times Newspaper Share In the throes of truffle fever The moment I heard chef and truffle-worshipper Kevin Blaylock yell, "Holy crap, I found a really big one! " as he scanned the fluffy, upturned... PREV of NEXT TYRONE BEASON / THE SEATTLE TIMES The day's catch, young Oregon white truffles, didn't look or smell impressive, but aging in paper bags or sealable plastic would help them ripen. TYRONE BEASON / THE SEATTLE TIMES Kevin Blaylock holds an Oregon white truffle he dug from the ground recently. This is the time of year the aromatic fungus is found in Western Washington and Oregon. KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Tools of truffle-dog training: truffle oil on cotton in containers, left, and real truffles. TYRONE BEASON / THE SEATTLE TIMES Kevin Blaylock gently removes a thin layer of loosely-packed topsoil with a garden rake, then replaces the dirt, to demonstrate one way of foraging for truffles.

He and other local gatherers are trying to train truffle-sniffing dogs to help locate the underground treasures in the European manner, which is more environmentally friendly. TYRONE BEASON / THE SEATTLE TIMES On a truffle foraging outing south of Olympia, chef and truffle enthusiast Kevin Blaylock prepares a chanterelle and chorizo "forage porridge" for friend Ryan Harris on his portable stove. KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Lynne Elwell rewards Shimmy, left, and Hula with treats after the truffle-dogs-in-training found a hidden cache. Related Summer Guide Get ski and boarding conditions all winter long with webcams, snow alerts and more at seattletimes.com/snowsports The moment I heard chef and truffle-worshipper Kevin Blaylock yell, "Holy crap, I found a really big one!" as he scanned the fluffy, upturned soil in a patch of Douglas firs south of Olympia, I knew he'd hit pay dirt. He knelt and picked up a dingy white orb about the size of a gumball, brought it to his nose and took a whiff so deep and passionate I thought he was falling in love with it.

From an aesthetic point of view, the ugly little truffle seemed hardly worth all the excitement. But truffles are surely the only fungus that can make a foodie drop to his knees in such pure joy. In this case, it was an Oregon white truffle, the lesser-known cousin of the famous and obscenely expensive Italian variety that many people encounter as aromatic shavings atop a serving of risotto or the mysterious musk in a gourmet omelet. Western Washington, and to a larger extent Western Oregon, are known as prime habitat for both whites and blacks. If you buy local varieties at a farmers market, for instance, they are likely to be labeled "Oregon truffles." In the Northwest, they typically mature between November and February, though the Oregon "spring" white matures a bit later. Truffle hunting Where People who gather truffles, a type of fungi that grows underground, often have their own secret spots to search for them, and that usually requires getting permission from a private landowner. You don't need a big forest to hunt for mushrooms. State forests and other public lands have designated mushroom-harvesting seasons, limits on how much a person can pick and other restrictions.

In general, rakes and other garden tools that could disturb the soil are prohibited on these lands, although small hand-made divots are OK as long as the hole is covered after you've finished digging. Visit the Puget Sound Mycological Society's Web site, which has a link to state mushrooming rules and contact information for different state land agencies, as well as other useful tips: . In this state and in Oregon, truffles grow west of the Cascades, a few inches underground around the roots of younger Douglas firs, hazelnut trees and oaks. Look for spots where the groundcover is sparse — truffles don't like a lot of competitive vegetation — and where the topsoil is soft and fluffy. More information Visit the North American Truffling Society's Web site for truffle foray reports, event listings, recipes, truffle identification information and more: . Truffle expert Charles Lefevre of Eugene sells trees inoculated with truffle spores though his business, New World Truffieres, , 541-513-4176. Planting truffle trees on your property is one way to ensure a good supply.

To taste what you're missing without enduring a slog though the woods, you can order fresh Oregon truffles from Oregon Wild Edibles, , or 541-484-0793. Premium grade black truffles cost $15 an ounce; premium white truffles are $8 an ounce. Kevin Blaylock can be reached at kevin@pnwcuisine.com . IF YOU GO truffle tips Don't eat any mushroom you aren't sure about, as many types are poisonous. The Puget Sound Mycological Society's Web site has informatin on eating wild mushrooms in its "Education" section. There are no known side effects associated with eating Oregon white and black truffles. Truffle season lasts from November to March with the best times coming in the middle of this period. Mature white truffles can be the size of a walnut — black truffles can be even larger. They look like potatoes with a beige or black surface and marbling on the inside. They should be fairly hard. If the truffles you find have no smell, they are probably not ripe and it may be best to come back later.

You can ripen some truffles in a thick layer of brown-paper bags stored in a cool, dry place, or in sealable plastic bags with paper towels. The Oregon Truffle Festival takes place Jan. 26-28 in Eugene and will include truffle seminars, dog-training demonstrations, tastings, dinners, fine food vendors and truffle excursions, depending on the admission package you buy. Packages range from $425 to $1,025 but tickets for individual events, such as the food marketplace ($15-$20), are available. Visit or call 503-296-5929 for details. A dog trained to sniff out truffles is the best and most environmentally friendly way to hunt for them. Many trainers use truffle-scented cotton balls and actual pieces of truffle to condition dogs to the smell. That means high season for truffles is right about now. Elusive to the point of absurdity, harvested with spy-novel secrecy, imbued with an otherworldly mix of vulgar and sublime fragrances and often confused with the fine chocolate of the same name, the truffle has been prized by peasants and nobles alike for centuries.

This doozy of a quote from the French writer Alexandre Dumas sums up the infatuation: "The most learned men have been questioned as to the nature of this tuber, and after two thousand years of argument and discussion their answer is the same as it was on the first day: We do not know. The truffles themselves have been interrogated, and have answered simply: Eat us and praise the Lord." I asked Charles Lefevre of Eugene, Ore., a Ph.D. in mycology and owner of New World Truffieres, which sells oak and hazelnut trees inoculated with truffle spores, to tell me how he's heard Italian white truffles described. "One description was goat piss, which I think is pretty close," he said. "Another was dead mouse trapped in a wall. The kinder description is garlicky. "The typical response when people smell Italian white truffles is, 'Get that thing away from me,' " Lefevre said. "It's a foul aroma, a nasty aroma — and some people just absolutely love it. And I'm one of them." Blaylock is one of those people, too.

The 27-year-old swears he's so attuned to truffle scent, he can smell it in the forest air during peak season. When he handed me a couple of young white truffles to sniff during our Saturday morning foray, their funky, beguiling odor overwhelmed my senses for a second. The smell was both alluring and repulsive. European truffles can sell for a staggering $1,000-$2,000 a pound, which is part of the reason food lovers experience the fungus so fleetingly in grated sprinkles and paper-thin slices. A Hong Kong businessman paid more than $160,000 two months ago at auction for a 1.5-kilogram white truffle from Alba, Italy. I recently found a quarter-size Alba white truffle at DeLaurenti specialty market in Seattle that was $88. Equally good Oregon varieties sell for a fraction of the European kind, sometimes just $100 a pound — still steep, for sure. But for a small contingent of Northwest truffle fans who know what to look for and where, excellent specimens come for free right in our own backyard.

Truffles grow just below ground in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of trees. So you have to rut around in the cold, wet dirt for them, often with the help of a garden tool — or, as the Europeans have been doing for eons, truffle-sniffing pigs or dogs. Blaylock, who teaches culinary arts at Sea-Tac Occupational Skills Center in Burien, goes on weekend truffle outings with friends and associates and celebrates a day's harvest by cooking up the freshly gathered ingredients in a "forage porridge" on his portable stove. Just don't ask him or any other truffle gatherer to share their favorite locations. "Truffle hunters are kind of protective." Lefevre said that in many cases, mushroom hunters wind up knocking on doors to ask property owners for permission to hunt truffles on their land. Some public lands in Washington allow berry and mushroom picking for personal use but may discourage or forbid disturbing the soil. When I joined Blaylock and his friend, Ryan Harris, of Olympia, for the truffling demonstration, he peppered me with truffle anecdotes, truffle trivia and truffle recipes, the kind of small talk essential to passing the time on an outing.

"I've heard them [truffles] described as something that God threw away," Blaylock told me with a grin. "That's why they're buried." Finding truffles in the wild is notoriously hit-and-miss. When luck turns sour for Blaylock, he orders truffles from Jim Wells, an effusive, lanky guy with a long beard who sells them by mail order through his business, Oregon Wild Edibles, in Eugene. "Truffles are kind of a mystery," Blaylock said. "I've gone out sometimes for six or seven hours and not found a thing, and I've gone out for 20 minutes and found all kinds of 'em." During Blaylock's demo, we uncovered a handful of white truffles, most of which were small and odorless. Blaylock brought several nickel-size truffles to his nose to check for aroma, which helps determine maturity. Size is less important. "It's all about marbling on the inside, and smell," he said.

"An immature truffle tastes like dirt, or a dull mushroom." Blaylock pointed out that using a rake to remove the top couple of inches of soil in search of truffles is not the most environmentally friendly way of doing things, because it disturbs the soil. Lefevre said European trufflers have sneered at him when he described how truffles are usually harvested here. Blaylock's teaching his dog Bear, a shepherd-heeler mix, to hunt for truffles. As a truffle dog, Bear is still "a work in progress." So for now, Blaylock narrows the search by looking for signs, like tell-tale evidence of rodents and deer, which eat truffles. But both Blaylock and Lefevre see great potential in the use of trained dogs because they are less intrusive. And unlike pigs, which traditionally were used in Italy, dogs won't eat the truffles they sniff out. One person who's ahead of the curve is Lynne Elwell of Port Orchard, a retired animal trainer for TV and film and a pet groomer. She's teaching her two mini Australian shepherds, Hula and Shimmy, to hunt truffles with help from Lefevre.

She'll hide a couple of canisters containing cotton balls doused with truffle oil, then send the dogs to find them. If they succeed, they get a treat. Elwell plans to take Hula and Shimmy on a truffle outing with Lefevre and several other foragers in Oregon this week for their first hunt, then put on a demonstration with the dogs at the second annual Oregon Truffle Festival Jan. 26-28 in Eugene. By introducing truffle dogs, educating the public and generally lifting the veil of secrecy around this exotic fungus — just a little — truffle culture can become as developed here as it is in France and Italy. At least Lefevre hopes so. "Our goal is to put these truffles on the map," he said. "There's very few places in the world that produce truffles, and we're one of them." Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com Truffle Hunting - David Lebovitz Truffle Hunting 106 comments - 02.01.2010 It’s not all fun and frolic—and chocolate—around here.

Aside from dealing with banks that limit access to your own money, or scratching your head when the France Telecom representative tells you that it’s going to cost you a mere €465 to keep your mobile number if you change to another one of their other phone plans (although it was a stretch to even get there; his first response was, “Yes. It is not possible”), believe it or not, there are some less-than-pastoral things about life here. One of them is not Tuber melanosporum, or black truffles, which as far as I’m concerned more than makes up for anything else. (Well, I would like a new phone…) Sure, various black truffles are found in Spain, Italy, China, Croatia, and even in the United States of America. But none that I’ve smelled compare to the famed black truffles unearthed from woods and forests of southwest France. Rien du tout. When I worked in the restaurant business, we’d often get knobbly black truffles sent to us, which were shaved over simple dishes like pasta, potatoes, and risottos; anything more complicated competes with their funky, pungent, but highly-prized aroma.

People go ga-ga over truffles, but I never caught the truffle bug, which was excellent news for my wallet. On my recent trip to Cahors, we went for a walk in the forest with a truffle hunter—and his boisterous pig, in search of black truffles. And it was there I learned how they work together to find these elusive tubers. It was a very chilly winter day, so cold that even the leaves on the spindly oak trees were shivering. But that’s truffle season; January and February. And if you want to find truffles, they’re not going to land in your lap while sitting at home by the fireplace. One needs to roam through the forests, where the trees have been stripped nearly bare by the icy winds. And even though seasoned truffle hunters don’t require much protection, un certain Parisien was bundled up quite well for the search. Because black truffles grow a few inches underground, unlike us, they’re impervious to frost. But that also makes them hard to detect. So truffle hunters use either dogs or pigs to find the elusive spores. In the past, pigs were used almost exclusively to rout out the truffles.

But in spite of how cute and picturesque the furry fellows are, for the most part, dogs have taken the place of the porkers. When a single truffle can set you back well over a few hundred bucks, even the most die-hard animal lover will agree that as much as we love our pets, very few people love them that much. As in, enough to sacrifice a few truffles for. While adorable, pigs have a habit of eating the truffle once they unearth it. Hence the stick, which I didn’t see being used. And this particular hunter carried a running monologue with the pig as it scampered around, obviously thrilled to have a captive audience to his ramblings. The only mistreatment of the animal I saw was that he likely wouldn’t get a cut of the take once the truffles were sold. Still, in spite of the cold, I can think of a lot worse things than roaming around the forest, sniffing truffles.

There was an obvious bond between the two, and the truffle hunter immediately sensed the moment the pig had found something because as soon as the pig buried its gueule in the rocky earth, he’d wait just a nanosecond before quickly swooping down and plucking the truffle from the hole before the pig could swallow it. The motion was so fast, that if you blinked, you’d have missed it. But lest you think the pig was being cheated in any way, as soon as the truffle hunter pulled the truffle a safe distance from the twitching snout, the pig made a mad grab for the basket, where an assortment of potatoes and apples were doled out as rewards. I doubt the pig was thinking how undervalued its labor was, and it seemed to be quite content. And once happily fed, le cochon scampered away, in search of the next truffle. Unfortunately for me, the more truffles I sniffed, the more I became intoxicated by their musky scent, and started craving them myself.

And while I wasn’t ready to scamper around the forest with my snout in the dirt on the end of a rope (those days are long behind me), after foraging, we were ready to hop over to the market in Lalbenque, to the world-famous Marché aux truffes, which began promptly at 2pm. And that was where the buying and selling, and intense haggling, was about to begin…( continued ) Related Links The Truffle Hunter’s Best Friend: Dog or Pig The Truffle Hunter’s Best Friend: Dog or Pig Jan 17 2015 This morning at the Napa Truffle Festival, Alana McGee, founder of Truffle Dog Company gave a talk on training truffle dogs. But first she explained the pig vs. dog dilemma for truffle hunting. Domestic animals are critical to harvesting truffles. The best way to know a truffle is ripe and ready to harvest is from the aroma that it gives off. Any harvested before or after this aromatic time will have very little value-and dogs and pigs can smell the subterranean fungi. Pigs have been traditionally used to hunt truffles.

This is because they have an excellent sense of smell and are beckoned to the truffle, as they contain androstenol, a sex hormone found in the saliva of male pigs. (Females are used to hunt). It’s also found in human sweat glands, which is perhaps why they are considered an aphrodisiac for humans as well. The problem is that pigs like to eat truffles, and many a French truffle hunter is missing digits from trying to retrieve one from a lusty swine’s mouth. Though, they also like all other food, and can be convinced to give the truffle up. However, pigs can cause a lot of damage to the terrain, and so they have been outlawed in Italy for hunting truffles. Though, according to Alana, there’s a pig truffle hunting competition in France each year, so it’s alive and well there. The other problematic issues around pigs and truffle hunting is that when you’re out in the woods with your pig, everyone knows what you are doing. And all mushroom hunters want secrecy. And final issue is fitting a 400 pound pig in your car. They just aren’t that mobile. So dogs are the more popular choice for truffle hunting.

Alana explained that virtually all dogs can be trained to hunt truffles-they all experience the world through scent. It’s her job to train them to find truffles, and the key to this is scent and positive rewards. They smell a truffle, they get a treat. She even showed a picture of a 13 year-old corgi who had just found its first truffle. Her advice is that the size of the orchard and the conditions should influence the breed. A chihuahua can’t cover a lot of territory, but a golden retriever can. A sheep dog will get distracted if sheep are nearby. The breed used by Italians for truffle hunting is an Lagotto Romagnolo, a breed of water dog that dates back to Etruscan times. There are three this year at the festival: Rico (short for Enrico Bacio il Tartufaio), Mila and Lolo. Both Rico and Mila were raised in the traditional Italian way-with truffle oil put on their mother’s nipple while they nursed. This afternoon, the festival hosted a visit to Robert Sinskey Vineyards, where the dogs demonstrated their skills.

It takes a truffle orchard 5 to 7 years to produce truffles, and these were planted in 2010. Anticipation is growing. It’s not yet ready to be harvested, so truffles were buried for the dogs to find. They zig-zagged the terrain, noses to the ground, and started to dig when they found something. Lots of other dogs were out there, interested in the treats that the truffle dogs were getting as part of their training. Black Truffle Facts: Black Truffles Perigord Truffles True Perigord Truffle from France All About Truffles: Black Truffles from Perigord, France The finest black truffles come from France, particularly the southwestern region known as the Dordogne. Historically as well as currently, the most famous black truffle of all is from a specific part of the Dordogne called the Périgord. In fact, fresh French winter black truffles are often called the "Diamonds of Périgord." They are simply exquisite, and from December to March, French truffle markets feature delectable Périgord black truffles characterized by a subtle aroma and an earthy flavor reminiscent of a rich chocolate.

They reach their pinnacle of fragrance and flavor in January and February. Like other varieties of truffles, the Périgord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) grows beneath the surface of the soil among the root systems of specific types of trees and develops a symbiotic relationship with those trees, which primarily consist of oak, but also beech, hazelnut, chestnut, birch and poplar. With the exception of the white Alba truffle , Périgord truffles are scarcer, more desirable and higher-priced than other truffles. Within the last 100 years production of these almost incomparable delicacies has significantly diminished from previous levels, but demand among discerning epicures remains justifiably strong. Black Truffle Hunting Although experimentation has resulted in the successful cultivation of some types of truffles, results are mixed and the finest black truffles are still the fresh, wild truffles discovered by rabassiers (French truffle hunters) amid the woods and forests of the Périgord region.

The centuries-old traditional method used by rabassiers to locate and unearth a Périgord truffle is essentially identical to the technique used by trifolai (Italian truffle hunters) when hunting Alba white truffles in northern Italy. In short, the truffle hunters use pigs or dogs to locate and uncover the wild truffles growing beneath trees. Female pigs have an innate ability to detect truffles beneath the ground by using their acute sense of smell. Sows are naturally attracted to truffles because they contain a compound very similar to a pheromone secreted by boars. Unfortunately, truffle pigs also have a tendency to eat the truffles they unearth, and as a result, more and more truffle hunters are now using specially-trained truffle dogs to find their quarry. The highly prized nature of the Périgord winter black truffle makes truffle hunting with a dog or pig something similar to a woodsy treasure hunt. Rabassiers claim nothing is better than hunting for (and finding!) fresh winter black truffles on a cold, crisp December day accompanied and assisted by an eager truffle pig or dog sniffing and rooting in the earth.

The truffle-hunting process is time consuming and labor intensive, factors which are partially responsible for the high prices fresh winter Périgord black truffles so easily command. Truffle markets can be found throughout many regions of France, but the largest French truffle market, located in the tiny village of Richerenches in southeastern France, is almost certainly the largest truffle market in the world. Southwestern France's largest truffle market is located in Lalbenque, not far from Périgord. The perfume of a winter black truffle is at its height in January and February, and that is when truffle markets are at their busiest. Fresh winter black truffles have been known to sell for wholesale prices of €1,000 per kilogram in these "farmer's markets," but prices in a retail setting easily approach €4,000 per kilogram. Fresh winter black truffles from Périgord are prized by chefs and epicures throughout the world for their incomparable flavor and aroma. They are an exquisite blend of "chocolate and earth" and richly deserve being referred to as the "Diamonds of Périgord."

Question: Which animal is traditionally used to hunt for truffles?
Answer: A pig